E458 













v«;^ 



: .^^^^. -.^i».- .^^^-^. "oWSI^r j>%. -. 







^^ . 



M 4? «#S "i 



0^ .'^^': -ov*' :^fe'-. '^ 




'•^ ^•*' 

r \./ 






%.^" 



V* .*»x^' 






'^ ,/\. ' 




>b v" :%;^ 



^-^ V^' • -*^^ -€^.^^0 lO^ 



'...•• ,^^ 







^oV" 



• «0 



^"-^^^ 



,0^ ^ 



v'\!i^-.*' 




'♦ ^-f. 



^* ... 



*-./ 






;* A 







<> *' . .• 







'•' .*^ 









:if' ■% v^ ♦- 




r .^^"-. 



;* <lV ^^ •>, 




" .^^^ * 






'^^ 











>0 ^ 














•0* .I'X'. °o 



"bv* • 









.<i>%. '. 



: <.^-\ 









•n^v*' 






s 



V 



OUR COUNTRY 



PEACE. PROSPERITY. AND PERPETUITY 



THANKSGIVING SERMON 



PKEACHKI) I." 



COEYMANS, ALBANY COUNTY, N. Y., 



THURSDAV, NOA'KMRKR 27. 18<)2 



JOHN D. LAWYER 

MINISTER OV THE GOSPEL. 



ALBANY. N. V.: 

P r in. I S H E D B V S . H . (1 K A Y 
N o . ;^> 8 y T \ T K S T K E E T . 



OUR COUNTRY 



PEACE, PROSPERITY, AND PERPETUITY 



THANKSGIVING SEEMON 



PREACHED IN 



COEYMANS, ALBANY COUNTY, N. Y., 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1862 



JOHN D. LAWYER, 

MINISTER OF TBF. GOSPEL. 



ALBANY, N. Y. : 

PUBLISHED BY S . R . GRAY. 

No. 3 8 STATE STREET. 

1863. 



6150$ 



^^>, 

v^ 



> 



MUNSELL, PRINTER, 
ALBANY. 



OUR COUNTRY 



A THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



" Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that 
LOVE thee. Peace be within thy walls and Prosperity within thy 
palaces. For my brethren and companions sakes, I will now say, 
Peace be within thee. I will seek thy good, because of the 
House of the Lord our God." — Ps. cxxii : 6-9. 

In accordance with the acknowledged usage, 
we most cheerfully comply with the recommenda- 
tion of the Chief Magistrate of this State, to as- 
semble for public worship, and devote it as a 
" Day of Praise, Thanksgiving and Prayer to Al- 
mighty God," devoutly acknowledging His power 
and goodness, and our dependence on His mercy 
and forbearance. 

The Psalm from which we have selected our 
text, contains an impassioned and earnest expres- 
sion of regard, on the part of the sacred writer, 
for his native country, and the city with which 
more especially, its honor and glory — its history 
and religion, were associated. With no people, 
probably, has the love of country ever been more 
strongly marked than that to which the Psalmist 
belonged. To the Jew, Jerusalem was Judea, and 
Judea was the world. To love Jerusalem was to 
love his country, and to go out of Palestine was 
equivalent to go out from the habitable portions of 
the earth. 



There are circumstances connected with the 
history of the Jews, which may account for this. 
They had been from the first a very exduske peo- 
ple. Their whole history and education had con- 
tributed to render them so. The great Jehovah 
had dealt with them as with no other people on 
the earth. They had been a chosen nation, select- 
ed as the peculiar people of God. They had been 
miraculously preserved and protected by him. 
Judea had been from the earliest period, the Land 
promised to their fathers — the designated home 
and territory of this nation. They had thus come 
to regard themselves as the favored people of 
Heaven, and their land as a choice spot of the 
Universe — the beauty and excellency of all coun- 
tries — and Jerusalem as the queen city of the 
earth — a sacred place, to be honored and praised 
aloud of God and man. In addition to all this, 
among the more devout and enlightened Jewish 
minds, there was a manifest regard for true re- 
ligion and the sincere worship of Jehovah, elevat- 
ed above all others for its purity and spirituality. 
Patriotism was with them a noble and highly re- 
ligious sentiment 

From these, and various like causes, it is easy 
to see how the national policy — the love of their 
own country — became so intensely and peculiar- 
ly developed among that people. Go where he 
might — whatever might befall him — the Jew 
never forgot his beloved country. In all his wan- 
derings, he saw no land like his own — no city 
like Jerusalem. In all the East — along the Eu- 
phrates and the Nile, and in the sunny South, 
there were no palaces so grand and magnificent 
as hers. The captivity and the exile of seventy 
years, did not obliterate its glory and splendor from 
his memory. And to this very day, the Jewish 
wanderer and exile, the blinded representative of 
a race that was once illustrious and exalted for 



patriotism ; feels content to close in poverty and 
want, a life of weariness and contempt, if he may 
but bury his mortal body aside the mouldering 
ashes of his fathers, within the shadows of the 
once splendid and holy city. 

My theme on this occasion is — "The Peace, 
Prosperity and Perpetuity of our Country." I 
shall consider some of the reasons why, as a peo- 
ple — a christian people — Ave should pray for i/«e 
'peace and prusperity of our beloved country ; and 
also, notice some of the elements which are at 
work, calculated to disturb its peace, retard its 
prosperity, and destroy its perpetuity. 

As a christian people, we should pray and labor 
for the Peace and Prosperity of our country. We 
must have peace as well as prosperity. Pray for 
the Peace of our American Republic — they shall 
prosper who love America. Peace be within thy 
borders, and prosperity throughout the whole land. 
For the sake of my countrymen — I will now say, 
Peace be within these United Stales ; because of 
Christianity — the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
I will seek thy good. Peace without prosperity is 
but a secure possession of misery and degradation ; 
and /Prosperity without peace, is a very dangerous 
and uncertain state of happiness. Our glorious 
Union is safe — none but ruffian hands dare touch it 
— none but frenzied minds speak of its dissolution. 
The love of country is not to be regarded by us as 
the mere impulse and instinct of nature ; but as a 
sacred and a most imperative christian duty — a 
duty which pertains to us as to no other people, 
and binding on us with a peculiar force — such as 
obligates no other nation on the earth to the same 
extent. The Ibllowing are some of my reasons : 

1. America is the land of our Fathers. The 
history of this country is such as should endear it 
to us by indissoluble ties. It is the purchase of 
great sufferings and sacrifices — of great toil and 



deprivation — of honored lives and truly noble and 
heroic souls. Do we realize the price that has been 
paid for the privileges we so quietly and richly en- 
joy ? Do we estimate the value ? The men who 
laid the foundation of our Republic ; and especial- 
ly of the Empire State, were men of no ordinary 
degree — men who would honor the world at any 
age. They were the men for the times ; men who 
thought, toiled and lived, not for themselves alone, 
but for posterity ; men of large souls, looking to 
the future ; men of faith in God — men of brave 
hearts. Many of them tasted death for us. What 
they did, and what they sufiered, has passed away 
from the memories of men, but what they achieved 
by those sufferings remain our heritage; even at 
this day — our glorious and common heritage ! 

Well may we love our Country that was pur- 
chased for us at such a price. It is blessed to 
love America for our father's sake A due regard 
for one's Ancestors seems to be a trait of our com- 
mon nature — an emotion universally exhibiting 
itself among mankind. Most assuredly, there is 
no people on earth, that have greater reason than 
we, to revere their ancestry; or to prize and love 
the country of their birth and of their labors, be- 
cause it was their father's land. We should pray 
and labor for the peace and prosperity of our 
Country, because — 

2. America is the home of our children. We 
are naturally interested in all that pertains to the 
welfare of those who are to come after us — who 
shall take our places and bear our names. Our 
children are dear to us. We seek to procure for 
them all the advantages, mental and moral, which 
are within our reach ; we make great sacrifices to 
give them an education ; we toil and deny our- 
selves to lay up for them a competent provision 
against want and future calamity. We labor to 
promote their temporal welfare. But what richer 



legacy can we possibly leave our children, than a 
free, peaceful, and prosperous country ? A country 
where the advantages of education are open to 
all — where the Bible is a free and unchained 
book — where Christianity is the religion — where 
every man has liberty to worship Jehovah our God, 
according to the dictates of his own conscience — 
where every man can pursue that occupation 
which he prefers — where industry can always 
secure the comforts of life — where law is supreme, 
virtue respected and religion honored. Such a 
legacy as this is far above all price. Such a Coun- 
try is our State — the Empire State; and such a 
Country is every free State of our Union. 

What a gift it would be, could you this day by 
some magic power, confer it upon the toiling, suf- 
fering, struggling sons of Europe; upon Italy — 
upon Hungary — upon France. Could the brave 
hearts that suffered and battled for our freedom 
and the advantages we now enjoy, look through 
the long vista of intervening years; and behold 
our present prosperous condition as a people — the 
result of their labors and sacrifices — how would it 
amply repay them for all they so manfully achieved 
and so heroically endured It is therefore, our 
duty as a people — it is a Christian duty, to per- 
petuate and hand down to our posterity a heriiage, 
not merely as rich and glorious as that which we 
ourselves have received from our forefathers ; but 
one so far exalted, enlightened and improved by 
our labors, that our children shall be as much 
indebted to us in this respect, as loe are to our 
fathers. Another reason arises from the fact 
that — 

3. America sustains a relation to and exerts an 
influence over the world. America is a land of 
freedom. Our country is the home and refuge of 
the oppressed — an asylum, where the poor outcast 
and exiled from every nation, may find protection 
and rest. The Declaration of our Independence 



is a perpetual habeas corpus act to the whole world. 
The patriot, compelled to fly from the tyrant's 
sword and the despot's rod, knows whither to direct 
his steps. Once on these happy shores, and no 
foreign power has a sword long enough, or an arm 
strong enough to reach him. 

The victims of poverty and woe — of misrule 
and neglect find here a congenial home and the 
means of ample support. What thousands are 
wending their way every year to our land ; and 
what thousands more unable to come, look with 
longing eye and hopeful heart on the bright star 
that hangs in the west. Should that star fall, 
what darkness would shut down on the nations of 
the earth. Even the poor deluded victims of Hie- 
rarchial despotism, and groaning under ecclesi- 
astical tyranny, may iind a shelter from the strong 
and mighty arm of Romanism, which has accu- 
mulated strength around it for thirteen centuries. 
God will break that arm in our country by the force 
of truth, and set the fettered and darkened mind 
at perfect liberty. I have no fears for the Papal 
power, it is perfect weakness in a land of Light 
and Truth and Freedom. Romanism is rapidly 
declining in this Country. The Tablet, a Roman 
Catholic paper, published in New York, makes the 
following striking confession in 1857: "Few 
Insurance companies," it says, " we venture to 
assert, would take a risk on the national life of a 
Creed, which puts Jive hundred daily into the grave, 
for 07ie it wins to its communion. And yet this is 
what Catholicism is doing in these States while 
we write." In 1846 the Roman Church in Poland 
numbered 3,794,000, and at the beginning of 1856, 
only 3,607,000, being a decrease in ten years of 
187,000 members. 

Then for the sake of the world — of suffering 
humanity in all lands ; let us earnestly pray for 
" the peace and prosperity of our Country," and 
labor to promote and perpetuate it. That man 



9 

entertains but a narrow and contracted view of the 
relation we sustain, and the influence we exert, as 
a nation, to the hopes and prospects of other na- 
tions, who can find none other but merely personal 
and selfish reasons for desiring and laboring to 
promote its welfare. Another reason that I would 
mention is — 

4. The part America is destined to act in the 
evangeJization of the world. If the everlasting 
gospel is ever to be promulgated throughout the 
world, and the spirit of Christianity prevail and 
rule over the kingdoms of the earth, as I believe it 
is to be, in the providence of God, it will be ac- 
complished through human instrumentality. The 
part which we as a Christian nation are to sustain 
in this mighty work, is truly a sublime one. "The 
rapid changes in religious belief that are taking 
place all over our land — the decline of old dog- 
mas — the consequent unsettling of opinions — 
the strugfjles in many portions for a firmer and 
fresher laith, all these have imposed the duty to 
disseminate the seeds of truth and life with an 
energetic and liberal hand. Already are Christian 
Missionaries scattered over almost the whole earth ; 
and the unsearcliable riches of Jesus, the "Christ 
of God," are proclaimed in almost all the principal 
spoken languages of the globe, to every tribe and 
people in its own language — in Arabic and 
Greek — in Syriac and Persian — in Hindostanee 
•and Malay and the Chinese, in the dialects of the 
American forests and of the Southern seas. India 
too, has become the battle field of the powers of 
Light and Darkness, and of Life and Death. The 
Appeal has come over from Australia and Trans- 
sylvania, for religious sympathy and aid, in tones 
of peculiar and manifold eloquence. No incon- 
siderable portion of the persons who are gatherino- 
congregations and schools in foreign lands ; and 
laying the slow and silent but sure foundations of 
2 



10 

future Christianity in those benighted regions, are 
the sons and daughters of America; born and 
reared among our mountains and valleys — sent 
out and supported by the prayers and liberality of 
American Christians. 

The chapter of American Missions, so far as it 
has yet been written, is a most important chapter 
in the history of our country, in relation to the 
conversion of the world to a pure faith — an en- 
lightened Christianity and a spiritual worship. It 
is destined to be more and more so as time rolls on. 
As a Christian nation we are yet in our youth. 
The world ere long, will look to our beloved coun- 
try for religious light and instruction — for a liberal 
and rational Christianity ; as it now does for sym- 
pathy and example in the struggle for civil free- 
dom. The world will learn from us the glorious 
emancipation from superstition and bigotry and 
error ; as it learns from us now the emancipation 
from the bondage of misrule and tyrannical au- 
thority. Doubtless, one great design of the Spirit 
of the Lord in guiding our fathers to this land, and 
building them up at such a cost and on such firm 
foundations ; was to make America the center and 
great source of Light and Truth for the " Everlast- 
ing Age," and the progress of the Kingdom of the 
Son of God, which has already been established 
on the earth, and which shall never be destroyed. 

This is the glorious design of Jehovah respecting 
the American nation. One great purpose in the- 
divine plan is to advance and promote the Universal 
spread of correct Scriptural Principles. Men it is true, 
may be individually saved from sin, where dark- 
ness, error and prejudice still exists; for who 
would venture to assert that upright and devoted 
Catholics may not be saved, even by the partial 
admission of divine Light which penetrates 
through the mass of traditionary lore and super- 
stitious observances by which "the Mother of the 



11 

Churches" is corrupted and enshrouded. It is 
His design to show to all mankind the glorious 
effects of a pure Christianity influencing a whole 
people — a spiritual theo-Christic democracy — 
acknowledging the supremacy of the " Higher 
Law" — that we shall not be in name only, but in 
very deed a Christian People. Who would not love 
such a Country ? This consideration alone, would 
be a sufficient reason for a Christian, most earnestly 
and devoutly to pray for the continued peace, 
prosperity and perpetuity of this free and Christian 
America. Pray for the peace of our American 
Republic — they shall prosper that love thee. Be- 
cause of Christianity, 1 will seek thy good. 

II. I now proceed in the second place, to con- 
sider some of the elements which are at work in our 
beloved Country, calculated to disturb its peace, 
retard its prosperity, and undermine its perpetuity. 
The first element and dangerous feature in our 
national character, which I mention is — 

1. A vain glorious boasting of our National pri- 
vileges. That a grateful acknowledgment of the 
favors dispensed to us by the great Jehovah — a 
keen and elevating sense of our national advan- 
tages — natural, social and political; a devoted 
attachment to those principles of equal rights on 
which our government is founded — a pure and 
generous patriotism ; that these are feelings both 
right and proper, I do not mean to deny. They are 
intimately connected with our duties as Christians 
and citizens of this highly favored country. The 
nation that forgets God can not prosper, Right- 
eousness exalts a nation. Our fathers were men 
who feared God and kept his commandments. 
The corner-stone of our Republic was laid with 
prayers. 

But permit me to ask, have we not as a people, 
as a great and prosperous nation, began more to 
ose sight of the Author of our privileges — instead 



12 

of acknowledging as our pious fathers did, the 
lumd of God in all our blessings ? Do we not con- 
sider them as a matter of course — as a birthright 
to which we have a natural claim ? In this spirit 
of confident boasting, do not we imagine that no 
great or laborious efforts are necessary to preserve 
those blessings for which our fathers fought and 
bled; forgetful, notwithstanding all the lessons of 
history, that the /orwis of freedom may long remain 
after the 5;«'n7 has fled; unmindful, that a luxuri- 
ous, effeminate and irreligious people are not ca- 
pable of enjoying true freedom. 

Again, let me ask, is there not a positive and 
marked tendency to such a condition discoverable 
in our national character ? Have we not in a great 
measure been drawn aside from the true source of 
a nation's prosperity and permanency — the virtue, 
the industry, the intelligence and the moral in- 
tegrity of the people ? Does not the opinion ex- 
tensively prevail, that we may be a peaceful, 
prosperous and free people without Christianity ? 
Is not the sentiment becoming quite prevalent that 
Education is the sole basis of civil liberty — that if 
Education can be universally diftnsed, all is safe — 
our noble institutions can not fall, our liberties can 
never be wrested from us ? It is unquestionably 
true that a wide spread and sound education is in- 
dispensable to freedom ; but it is not freedom itself; 
nor does it necessarily lead to it. The most en- 
lightened mind, sometimes has a most corrupt 
heart. Some of the best educated countries in the 
world, have no dwelling place for liberty. Recent 
events, confirm the fact, that the irreligious, im- 
pious and mobocratic portion of the country are 
fast gaining the ascendancy in our nation, and 
sometimes filling many of the most important 
stations in the national government. Let us ever 
remember that Jehovah is the God of nations ; and 



13 

that nations as such, receive their retribution and 
just recompense of reward in this world. 

There is no one thing which will more directly 
tend to the peace, prosperity and stability of our 
government ; and which at the same time is more 
demanded to allay the frenzied feelings of sec- 
tional strife, and prepare the way for calm and just 
counsels, and right decisions, than a deep, power- 
ful and pervading sense of our dependence as a 
people, and our obligations as individuals to the 
Supreme Being. " Peace be within thee — because 
of the House of Jehovah our God, I will seek thy 
good." 

2. Another element dangerous to the peace and 
prosperity of our country, and to the perpetuity of 
our free institutions — is connected with the very 
principles on which they are founded — the right 

OF SUFFRAGK. 

The ballot-box is a mighty instrument in the 
hands of freemen ; but then it should be stuffed 
with the ballots of those who can intelligently ex- 
ercise the great privilege. The right of suffrage 
should not be universai ; neither should it be re- 
stricted to native or adopted citizens, nor confined 
to property, religion, nor age. The illiterate man 
is not qualified to exercise the responsible duty of 
the right of suffrage. Ignorant of the value and 
importance of a vote, he casts it at random. The 
man who can not read nor write, is the one who 
stands ready to sell his vote, and demagogues are 
as ready and willing to buy it. Here lies the 
danger and corrupting influence. There are thou- 
sands of yoimg men without wealth and in their 
non-age, and thousands of intelligent, high-minded 
women in our country, better citizens and better 
qualified to discharge the duties of a voter, than 
the illiterate and bloated ruffian with all his birth 
and wealth and age. According to the census of 
1850, Indiana contained 69,445 persons over 20 



14 

years of age unable to read or write. The follow- 
ing are some of the examples of native white citi- 
zens over 20 years of age, who can neither read 
nor write, as taken from the statistical table of the 
census of 1850. Tennessee has one in every 4. 
Virginia, Georgia and Kentucky 1 in every 5. 
South Carolina 1 in every 8. Ohio 1 in every 15. 
Pennsylvania 1 in every 21. New York 1 in every 
5Q. Vermont 1 in every 268. Massachusetts 1 in 
every 408. The New England States contain the 
most enlightened, intelligent and virtuous citizens 
in the world. In view of the above statement, I 
ask to-day as a matter of information and inquiry, 
whether the right of suffrage might not be taken 
from ninety-nine out of every one hundred, and 
not affect in the least the result of any general 
election in our government. He who wields the 
ballot, should at least be a free and intelligent 
citizen. 

3. Another element dangerous to the peace and 
prosperity of our beloved country and demoralizing 
in its influence, is the spirit of partizan politics — I 
mean the politics of party. 

I would not wish to be understood that I am 
opposed to politics — that politics which Webster 
defines to be — "the science of government;" — 
" that part of ethics which consists in the regula- 
tion and government of a nation ;" — with a view 
to preserve its — " safety, peace, and prosperity ; — 
" comprehending the defence of its existence and 
rights," against invasion and foreign control ; " the 
augmentation of its strength, and resources;" 
" the preservation and improvement of their mo- 
rals." The study of a subject of such vast extent 
and importance, is the duty of every citizen, pa- 
triot, philanthropist and Christian. 

Neither am I opposed to party. Party is the re- 
cognized bond of union, and the only one which 
renders effectual any design, policy, and measure 



15 

for the government of a people and to improve and 
promote their " morals." In the political world, 
the only means of taking action is by party. There- 
fore party organizations are necessary, and not as 
generally supposed, necessary evils ; but instruments 
in the social and moral fabric, by which the voice 
of the people can be heard — vitality and activity- 
given to their movements — and the will of the ma- 
jority be made known and obeyed. There is great 
poiver in party; and when vested in the right hands, 
and influenced by correct principles, it is essential 
to the welfare, peace and prosperity of a nation. 
Virtue and intelligence are the only strength of a 
people. 

Recognizing this principle as true, how import- 
ant it is for a nation that its Rulers, Legislators 
and officials in every department of government 
should be deeply and properly imbued with the 
spirit of "Justice, Freedom and Temperance." 
How necessary that a people be indoctrinated in 
the spirit of Truth and Right ; so as to choose for 
their Rulers, Judges and ofiicers, who shall truly 
represent them in the sight of the Supreme Ruler 
and Governor of the Universe, and before an ad- 
miring world. 

No highminded man — no true patriot will con- 
descend to engage in a mere party strife. Much 
less can a Christian, and especially a Christian 
Minister consistently come down from his elevated 
and holy position and stoop so low as to contend 
in a mere partizan contest ; Ibr the prestige of an 
empty name ; ibr the reckless scrambling of office ! 
"A wind full of plague and sweeping the land — 
deadlier than the African Simoon, — a pitiless tor- 
nado, with hailstones and fire, mingling in its 
train." It would be degrading and destructive to 
the influence of the Ministry of Reconciliation to 
make it subservient to mere party interests. But it 
is the duty of every man, and the peculiar work 



16 

of the minister of Christ Jesus, to advocate the 
fundamental principles of Righteousness, Trutii 
and Freedom, and the wiiversai claims of Jehovah. 
The Ministers of the Gospel are less bound by the 
fetters of mere partizan politics, than any other 
intelligent and virtuous class of citizens in our 
country; but they are so much the more firmly 
wedded and strongly attached to the principles of 
justice — of right — of humanity — ol Temperance 
and Freedom. It is the solemn and imperative 
duty of all honest and loyal citizens to engage in 
politics, with a view to preserve the " safety, peace 
and prosperity " of their country and "improve its 
morals." And especially do Christians too much 
neglect this duty, and too often retire from the 
field of political strife, because they do not like to 
come in contact with unholy elements which they 
must meet. What makes the " muddy waters of 
politics," unless it is that Christians and upright 
citizens leave demagogues and their coadjutors to 
do the foul work of intrigue and machinerij of politi- 
cal partizanship. No wonder that so many people 
think that politics — "the science of government," 
ought not to be carried into the pulpit ! Certainly 
not party politics ! But God has said — "When 
the Righteous are in authority, the people rejoice ; 
but when the wicked beareth rule, the people 
mourn." 

Christianity, should therefore be the governing 
principle of every party organization ; and it is the 
duty of every virtuous citizen — of every Christian 
and every minister of the gospel to participate in 
political action ; and not confide their dearest 
rights and privileges — the peace and prosperity 
of our country in the hands of men, possessing no 
moral integrity — with no sacred flame of freedom 
burning on the altar of their hearts, and gov- 
erned in life by no other law than party expediency 
and party interests — who deserve not the name 



17 

of politicians and statesmen — but of trading dema- 
gogues and liackneyed partizans ; base and cor- 
rupt enough at any time to sell themselves — to 
sell their country, and even their own party. 

4. I will mention but one more dangerous ele- 
ment existing in our country, now at work in dis- 
turbing its peace — retarding its prosperity and 
threatening its dissolution. I mean the restless, 
aggressive and rebellious spirit of the slave power. 

This power has long existed in our country, and 
embodies the most dangerous elements of mischief 
It was early admitted into these United States, and 
gradually developed itself in a series of unparal- 
leled enormities. Years ago the patriotic eye 
watched its stealthy step as it constantly crept 
upward to seize the helm of government. The 
threatening peril was pointed out, and cautiously 
it was intimated that the glare of that demon eye 
betokened evil. But the monster instead of being 
met with manly firmness, and sent howling back 
to his own vile swamps and worn out phmtations, 
was coaxed and fondled ; and when he growled, 
was pacified by Compromises, and yiekling up suffi- 
cient territorial domain to prowl over. Thus en- 
couraged by supineness and strengthened by cow- 
ardice, it encircled us in its Anaconda fbkls, and at 
last made its deadly spring, and its venomous 
fangs are fastened in our flesh, its bloody jaws are 
at our throat, and our life-blood is now flowing on 
the battle field. 

This power in our country, to which I refer, 
emanates from the system of American Slavery. 
It is based upon the behest and the interest of a 
moneyed and political aristocracy of some 400,000 
Slaveholders, which has exerted its influence in 
the government by means of official patronage and 
through the panic of fear, created by boisterous 
declarations of disunion. Previous to the Rebel- 
lion, it held about four million of men, women and 
3 



18 

children as goods and chattels, who were valued 
at the enormous sum of three thousand millions 
of dollars. It has given origin to a state of society 
that is hostile to human freedom — its civilization 
is of the lowest and most degraded type, and its 
Religion is the very sum of iniquity and unright- 
eousness. 

Human Slavery as it exists in our nation, is de- 
nounced by every virtuous and enlightened citi- 
zen ; it is not openly avowed or advocated by any 
political party or religious denomination, except 
in the Slave States ; democracy has no participa- 
tion in it — republicanism is entirely free from its 
polluted breath. Throughout all Christendom, a 
conscience has been aroused on this stupendous 
sin, so that it is condemned as unchristian by the 
civilized world. 

In my remarks I shall be compelled to state 
some truths and facts which may be somewhat 
unpleasant and humiliating, although I do sin- 
cerely design them for our common welfare. I 
shall speak of the Slave Power, as embodied in 
law, and its organic workings and operations. 

1st. Tke Slave Power is the deadly foe to freedom. 
Being itself the very incarnation of every wrong, 
and conscious it meets universal hatred, it most 
intensely hates freedom, its natural enemy, with 
the instinctive malice of satan against holiness. 
It reduces more than three millions of the people 
of this nation, men, women and children, born 
Iree as the air; to the condition of mere goods, 
chattels and merchandize — liable to be sold upon 
the shambles to the highest bidder ; and as a con- 
sequence abolishes among all these millions (with- 
out respect to color), the institution of marriage; 
nullifies the authority and all the rights of the pa- 
rental relation ; and takes from them the key of 
Knowledge by prohibiting their education. It raises 
mobs to torture and abuse the men who it even 



19 

suspects of uttering, or wishes to utter a true word 
against its unhallowed authority; it drives away 
gospel ministers whom it dislikes, and repeats the 
persecutions of Heathendom. It enacts the most 
bloody laws. The holiest deeds are crimes in the 
diabolical code of this heartless power. It has 
fines and imprisonments for the duty of teaching 
a Sinner to read God's word of life and salvation ; 
it has bloody scourging for the mother who aids 
her own daughter to escape from the house of 
bondage ; it has the infamous lash for the maiden 
who raises her hand to give a blow in self defence, 
from the grasp of beastly lust; it has the peniten- 
tiary for giving a crumb of bread, or a cup of water 
to a perishing fugitive fleeing to breath the fresh 
air of a free soil. 

2d. The Slave Forcer, by its corrvpling influence has 
perverted the govrrnment. The Fathers of our coun- 
try loved freedom, the slave power loves slavery. 
Our Fathers well knew that one or the other sys- 
tem must exclusively prevail in our land in the 
course of time. They regarded the existence of 
human slavery and chattelship in so many of the 
states with sorrow and shame, when they framed 
the Constitution of the Union ; and they harmo- 
niously determined to organize the government, 
and so direct its powers and energies, that freedom 
should certainly prevail, and that slavery would in 
a short time as certainly disappear forever. For 
this purpose, our Fathers based the whole structure 
of government, broadly on the principle that all 
men are born equal, and therefore free; recogniz- 
ing no other class of citizens but persons, that is 
human beings, who possessed certain inalienable 
rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
piness. They established a system of appren- 
ticeship as an organic law — a right of service 
or labor from persons, by the laws of any of the 
States, with a proviso, that such persons were not 



20 

obligated to render such service or labor, when 
taken under the jurisdiction of the laws of any 
other State, except when such persons escaped from 
such service or labor. By the ordinance of 1787, 
they consecrated all of the National domain not 
yet polluted and stained by the curse of slavery, to 
freedom and free labor, immediately, thenceforth 
and forever. Our Fathers wisely and necessarily 
modified this policy of freedom, by leaving it to 
the several States to abolish human slavery in 
their own way, by their own legislation, and at 
their own pleasure, instead of confiding that power 
to Congress. 

Government is designed for the protection of 
Rights ; and especially the rights of the weak, the 
innocent, and the poor and oppressed. The Con- 
gress has no power conferred to it to convert a 
" person," a human being into goods and chattels, 
no more than it can convert a " president" into a 
king. Human slavery can not exist under its ju- 
risdiction, it has no right to prostitute the holy 
name and authority of Law, and endorse legisla- 
tive enactments which are simply the embodiment 
of iniquity. The Congress has no right to legis- 
late for slavery. The District of Columbia belongs 
to the American nation. Every legal act in that 
District owes its authority to Congress, and as long 
as it upheld slavery at our Capitol by American 
legislation, it fastened a gigantic sin upon the 
whole nation, because oppression is not measured 
by iveight, but by the light under which it is prac- 
ticed. 

The Slave Power has perverted the channels of 
our government, and previous to the Secession of 
the confederate slave States, it had gained the 
entire possession, and for more than twenty-five 
years it had substantially controlled it in all its 
departments. Previous to 1844, it had violated 
the express provisions of the Constitution, by de- 



21 

iiying the right of petition and free discussion in 
Congress as far as Slavery was concerned in the 
District of Columbia. It has created and annini- 
hilated political parties at its pleasure. Under all 
these circumstances and in the light of these facts, 
to expect the Slave Power will resist and renounce 
human slavery, is as unreasonable as to look to 
the Catholic Propaganda at Home to send out and 
support Protestant missionaries to convert the 
world. 

3. The Slave Power has finally rebelled against 
the government, and noiv threatens the dissolution 
of the Union. The contest into which we are 
now forced, is "a war of rightful government 
against lawless Rebellion ; of the Constitution 
against conspiracy; of union against confusion; 
of liberty against slavery; of humanity against 
barbarism ; of patriotic benevolence against selfish 
despotism ; and of a pure, unfettered Christianiy 
against a pernicious theology — perverting mind, 
conscience and even the teachings of the Bible, for 
the support of a state of society and domestic in- 
stitutions that have filled the land with pollution 
and oppression." 

The Slaveholding Confederate States by seceding 
from the Union and " revolting against the authority 
of the national government, by organizing hostile 
armies, by fighting battles, and by inviting the aid 
of foreign monarchs to destroy our Republic, have 
assumed a belligerent attitude, which places them 
in the position of public enemies. They are amena- 
ble to all the rules and penalties of the international 
law of belligerents." 

In a late work entitled *' The Sectional Contro- 
versy'' it is admitted that for more than fifty years, 
" the question of Slavery has been a bone of con- 
tention between the southern and northern sec- 
tions, giving color to all other questions, inflaming 
their animosities — disturbing legislation — peril- 



22 

ing the existence of the government, and leading 
finally to a tremendous eruption of fratricidal pas- 
sions, and a malignant armed struggle." At the 
present time the excitement is broader, the hatred 
intenser, and the determination on both sides 
firmer than at any former period. For a "year 
and a half of the bloodiest conflicts, which have 
involved not only the whole nation, but the civil- 
ized world in their vortex, the contest has been 
rendered the more direct — more obstinate — more 
energetic — and more impossible of pacific solu- 
tion." 

The aggressions and oppressions of the Slave 
Power have aroused the popular mind, until its 
arm has been broken at the Capitol of the Nation ! 
The 37th Congress have thrown off" the incubus of 
Slavery from the District of Columbia, and made 
the national territories forever free from its pollu- 
tion and curse. In addition to all this, " the 
people of the north, genuine heirs of the 19th cen- 
tury, and sharing the convictions and sentiments 
of the civilized world, are more and more assured 
that Slavery is a moral wrong — a political curse, 
and in every other aspect a terrible evil." These 
convictions can not be changed — these sentiments 
can not be eradicated. 

What 'then shall be done ? There is but one 
alternative in the case ; either the north and south 
must separate; or Slavery, the sole cause of the 
rebellion and the subject of all our past and pre- 
sent calamities must be removed. A peaceful 
separation and recognition of Independence is 
utterly impracticable; secession, and a dissolution 
of the Union, if it were possible, would be a state 
of ceaseless war. 

Then apply the remedy. For the sake of peace, 
enduring peace, slavery must be exterminated 
from the land ; for the prosperity of the country, 
the nation must be purified from its pollutions; 



23 

and for the perpetuity of the Union, slavery must 
die ! The Commander-in-Chief, by military ne- 
cessity and potency, and the Congress by prompt 
legislation, without doing violence to the Constitu- 
tion, are entreated and demanded by every lawful 
means in their power, " to fulfill our native des- 
tiny, by making real that glorious ideal of human 
freedom with which we began." Then our Ameri- 
can Republic, thus "disenthralled, homogeneous, 
united; instinct with a new life and energy and 
goodness, would become in fact, what she once 
was and still is by aspiration, the home of truly 
democratic institutions; the nurse of every just 
and generous policy — domestic and international; 
the asylum of earth's oppressed ; the hope and 
model of mankind, to which the heroes of the old 
world, in their stern struggles for larger light and 
liberty would turn with solace ; and statesmen in 
their boldest schemes of human grandeur, look for 
guidance." 

Let us then, beloved brethren and Iriends, come 
with profound gratitude belbre the Most High, and 
render our sincere thanks, " for his mercies, count- 
less in number and infinite in extent," and implore 
his blessing that Peace may revisit us. *' Let us 
pray for the President of the United States, and 
those that rule over us, that they may have the 
wisdom and grace they need ; for our armies, their 
generals, officers and soldiers, that they may be 
directed and prospered in their attempt to sup- 
press the rebellion; for our people and the nation 
at large, that they may have grace given them to 
put away the sins that prevail among us, especially 
every thing that oppresseth and maketh a lie; and 
that they may accomplish the reformations needed 
in society, to prevent intemperance and sabbath- 
breaking ; and the avarice, licentiousness, fraud, 
and whatever sins may have found favor in their 
eyes. Let us implore the divine forgiveness for 



24 

our soldiers, endangered by the vices of the camp; 
for our sons and kindred among Ihem, that they 
may be preserved from the temptations and perils 
to which they are exposed. Let us remember the 
sick and wounded and dying in our hospitals; the 
oppressed and enslaved in their bondage and ter- 
rors, and forget not our enemies, that they may be 
brought to repentance, and lay down the weapons 
of their rebellion. The bereaved and afflicted 
families of our land should also share in our sym- 
pathy and prayers." 

Let us most fervently beseech the Lord God, 
that he would bestow upon us as a people, an en- 
lightened and liberal, yet earnest patriotism — a 
sincere regard for law — a due and just attach- 
ment to the Constitution of our Union — a stern 
determination to maintain the right without con- 
cessions or compromises with the wrong ; above 
all, an earnest, pervading sense of dependence on 
Him, with whom lies the question of our destiny. 
If we valiantly take the side of truth and justice — 
of God and of man, peace is sure ; and prosperity 
will cover our broad land with enterprise, tempe- 
rance and freedom. The favor of our God will 
rest on us. We shall go on with our country's 
mission as the world's benefactor and friend, and 
the Home of Freedom to generations yet unborn. 
Amen. 



B4 M 







' _<0 




o- .w 






,^o* 




























" \. < 






.*■•' .*. 











'^o^ 




'oK 



V^ *Vi^* <=!:<> -ftp v*«*^- 




,0^ »,*'',1!*. *^ 










>*• 









<^ *'Tri* .0 













.0-' 




.*) 



.^ ...«. "-, 



«J^ * • ' ^ 



;♦ .4.^ 




^ J 

"^o^ 











* aV •^ . 




='^d.,:i,'^:\!jR.:':T««-r?n 



liiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiu'ii^^iiiMii::^^ 



